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What do you think about my band's singer?

#201
altarsofmadness said:
Sorry, hadn't read the question somehow.
About autotune, well, I don't think we even considered it, but it does sound like a great option now. I'll talk to the guy who did the mastering and ask him. Any estimate for that?
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It can't be fixed in the mastering. You'd have to go into the original vocal tracks. And the cost would be dependent upon the hourly rate, and skill of the engineer.

Most people could do a decent job of cleaning up the major flaws in an hour or 2. I know some pitch correction plug ins have an auto fix which could be done in real time, but it's not as accurate, and in your singer's case I'm not sure it could be done without getting that 90s Cher/Kid Rock effect happening.
 
#202
altarsofmadness said:
Well, we won't fire our singer, that's certain, I mean, that was not even an option. I see that a lot of you guys have really detested his vocals, like seriously, but I believe it may be a combination of, one, most of you are not really into the style, and, most important, two, he might be out of tune a lot of the time. I do like the vocals on both songs, specially on the first one, because (this might be explained by knowing the song's back story and being involved in its creation) it drips with feeling, I mean, even if he is out of tune, he can get a message across, he can get a feeling across, which I believe is even more important, or at least is more important for me.

He' still getting lessons tho.

And no, I do not regret asking, I mean, we are pretty good at accepting criticism, and after reading some of the, albeit childish, responses, I don't think any review will negatively impact me.

And, thank you all for taking the time to listen to us :)
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Good luck to you. I expect that time will tell you whether the singer's inability to stay in pitch will be important or not, assuming, of course, that he doesn't improve much. When you find out, let us know. BTW, even Paul McCartney is flat a lot and that didn't seem to hinder him much. Check out Bob Dylan too.
 
#203
Dude, don't compare McCartney (or even Dylan) to this guy. Come on now.

And I can only assume you're talking about recent live shows. But the dude is over 70 years old. All the Beatles and Wings stuff he's right where he needs to be.
 
#205
What are the intentions of this music? If it is an experimental form of punk jazz, the vocals are unique and refreshingly unfettered by the tonal rules that usually govern western music. If it is an attempt to be edgy and provoke the listener, you've succeeded there as well. If it's just a regular old collection of rock songs you may wish to reconsider releasing it. Then again, it's not really my style to begin with, so you may have a hit on your hands. Best of luck.
 
#206
Tom Lane said:
Good luck to you. I expect that time will tell you whether the singer's inability to stay in pitch will be important or not, assuming, of course, that he doesn't improve much. When you find out, let us know. BTW, even Paul McCartney is flat a lot and that didn't seem to hinder him much. Check out Bob Dylan too.
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Please give examples of Paul McCartney singing flat.
 
#207
altarsofmadness said:
Well, my band just finished recording its first album and well, I love it (who doesn't love its band's first album?). However, a lot of people say that our singer is not that good. I really like his vocals, but I know this could be an acquired taste. I should add that he is also our main lyricist and our keyboard player.
So, what do you think?
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I bet we've all suffered from the "my singer isn't very good but my determination and excitement is blinding me thing ". It's a strange phenom that happens when a person ( I've done it more than once) doesn't want to see things for how they are. I think you know he's not very good.
 
#208
There's a difference between "not very good" and what this guy is though. This is like saying "yeah, William Hung isn't a GREAT singer I guess, but he's a pal, so we're definitely keeping him in the band". I mean, if you can't hit your target note at least 8 times out of every 10 (and especially when you MISS 9 out of every 10), you are not a singer. You are a guy who talks over music at random pitches. You could use a random number generator to generate pitches and it would probably be more likely on key than this guy.

There is definitely a range in between "definitely a pretty good singer" and "definitely not a good singer", and I would agree many of us have probably had experiences with those. But this guy is definitely outside that range. The only people in the thread who seem to think this guy has any business singing are the OP and a small handful of people who are being abnormally kind and forgiving. The real world will not be so kind though. So prepare to get a lot of booing and people walking out of gigs and things like that, because I can guarantee it will happen.
 
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#212
Omega Monkey said:
There's a difference between "not very good" and what this guy is though. This is like saying "yeah, William Hung isn't a GREAT singer I guess, but he's a pal, so we're definitely keeping him in the band". I mean, if you can't hit your target note at least 8 times out of every 10 (and especially when you MISS 9 out of every 10), you are not a singer. You are a guy who talks over music at random pitches. You could use a random number generator to generate pitches and it would probably be more likely on key than this guy.

There is definitely a range in between "definitely a pretty good singer" and "definitely not a good singer", and I would agree many of us have probably had experiences with those. But this guy is definitely outside that range. The only people in the thread who seem to think this guy has any business singing are the OP and a small handful of people who are being abnormally kind and forgiving. The real world will not be so kind though. So prepare to get a lot of booing and people walking out of gigs and things like that, because I can guarantee it will happen.
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Yeah, I wouldn't present him as a "singer." I can see two options: possibly, with singing lessons, he could figure it out, learn to breathe and hit a pitch, and actually become a singer. Sometimes people can make amazing strides once they figure out the basics of what they're supposed to be doing. Or, alternatively, make a virtue of necessity and say that the off-pitch non-singing vocal he does is his thing, love it or leave it. That would be the Wesley Willis approach I mentioned earlier. Appeal is going to be limited, but you might find an audience that likes it.
 
#213
Omega Monkey said:
There's a difference between "not very good" and what this guy is though. This is like saying "yeah, William Hung isn't a GREAT singer I guess, but he's a pal, so we're definitely keeping him in the band". I mean, if you can't hit your target note at least 8 times out of every 10 (and especially when you MISS 9 out of every 10), you are not a singer.
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What would you call Lou Reed, or Anthony Keidas for that matter?

I played some of my biggest and best gigs with people who couldn't sing in key. Even got some awesome endorsements doing so. Singing in key is important to me, makes for good musicianship, and is pleasing to the ears - but it's not the be all and end all of being a successful musician, front person, entertainer, or artist. There are also lots of people who can sing perfectly in key, who are really difficult to watch or listen to.

One of the big gigs I had they had to heavily effect and doctor up the vocals in the live mix. It was so bad we saw the sound people passing the headphones around (w the clean mix) laughing their butts off through most of the show. It was still a great performance.

I'm not just being kind and/or blowing sunshine. I'm speaking from my own experience and that I've witnessed of others. Some here I do think are being unnecessarily rude, but hey, I've been doing that lately in some other threads, so.... Each. That's all. :)
 
#215
I don't know if this'll help but I watched this last night - about one of my favorite songs of recent times, The Story of… Fairy Tale of New York. I don't know that there's a Cher effector in existence that Shane MacGowan's dulcet tones wouldn't launch into orbit. The song took years to write, literally - and it came into being only after a major illness caused a vision in the lad, an epiphany that turned his hospital bed into a chart-busting chariot careening unswervingly towards a Poguesian pot of gold beyond imagining. It's a great story.




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